Fatal exchange

摘要

The exchange of microbes between humans and animals - zoonoses - began to fascinate me nearly 20 years ago, when I was studying wild primate populations. There are a remarkable number of zoonotic agents, ranging from anthrax to HIV, West Nile virus and influenza. It seemed shocking even in the early 1990s that this vastly important class of microbe was considered, if at all, to be a funny-sounding boutique niche in biology.